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MSU research expenditures edge toward $88 million

Research dollars at Montana State University climbed to $87.9 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2004, MSU vice president for research Tom McCoy announced today.

by Annette Trinity-Stevens, MSU News Service

http://www.montana.edu/commserv/csnews/nwview.php?article=1887

That total is a $5.6 million rise over last year and a healthy $21.7-million leap over the 2002 total of $66.2 million.

“At this level of research expenditures, MSU is by far the most significant research and development organization in Montana,” McCoy said.

MSU’s research volume has been climbing for two decades, sometimes in modest year-to-year increases and other times in big annual jumps.

Overall the recent increases are attributable to an entrepreneurial faculty eager to seek funding for their ideas; an increased availability of federal funds in new areas such as bioterrorism as well as significant increases in biomedical research funding; and increases in federal appropriations for such MSU projects as weed control, the development of high-speed optical processing systems and the exploration of exotic microbial life in Yellowstone National Park.

Annual rankings by the National Science Foundation put MSU in the top 100 public universities based on its research expenditures. But unlike the nation’s top grant recipients such as Harvard, MIT and Johns Hopkins, MSU faculty still maintain high teaching loads and are recognized for their hands-on mentoring of students.

"The performance of the faculty at MSU is superb, and their success in competing for research funds demonstrates the high quality of faculty scholarship in addition to their excellence in providing a first-class learning environment," McCoy said.

Roughly 10 percent of MSU’s annual grant dollars go toward scholarships, fellowships and student employment, said MSU grants and contracts director Leslie Schmidt.
In addition, such designated programs as the Undergraduate Scholars Program (USP) pay students to design and complete their own creative projects with a faculty mentor in any discipline. A portion of the overhead dollars MSU receives each year goes toward the USP and related programs.

Nearly 85 percent of the grant dollars are from federal sources, such as the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services. Nine percent come from private sources, and the remaining six percent are from state agencies such as Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

How the money is spent breaks out this way: about two-thirds goes toward salaries for faculty, technicians and students; 15 percent goes toward research equipment; and the rest goes toward supplies and other operating expenses.

Some of last year’s awards include $10.5 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases to enhance human and bovine immune systems, a project done with LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals of Bozeman; $5-million from the National Science Foundation to study a vexing scientific question about microbial evolution; and $300,000, also from the National Science Foundation, for MSU historians to examine the way humans have used and modified the American West through science and technology.

These are multi-year projects, so not all that money is spent in the first year.

Contact: Annette Trinity-Stevens, (406) 994-5607 or [email protected]

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Research Roundup at Montana State University (#236)

September 09, 2004 — From MSU News Service

http://www.montana.edu/commserv/csnews/nwview.php?article=1890

Lichen ties

Of all the pristine sites in Montana and Wyoming, the Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park is most like Yellowstone National Park when it comes to lichens. The two parks have 123 species in common, according to Jessie Salix who researched lichens for her master’s degree from Montana State University. Salix collected samples from 22 places in the Lewis and Clark park and found 164 species of lichens. Almost half of them grew on rocks. One-third grew on bark or wood. The rest grew on moss, litter, soil or some other material. The diversity of lichens indicates the relatively undisturbed condition of the state park, Salix said.

Torn between two countries

Many Honduran families are split between Honduras and the United States, says MSU sociologist Leah Schmalzbauer. Family members most likely to earn money go to the U.S. The children stay behind, generally cared for by grandmothers or other females in the family. Schmalzbauer spent two years with a Honduran community in Boston, then traveled to Honduras to meet their families. Most of the workers she interviewed in Boston were illegal immigrants. The women tended to clean houses, work in the service industry, or work as janitors at universities and large corporations. The men generally worked as landscapers, roofers or janitors. Schmalzbaur’s article on "Searching for Wages and Mothering from Afar" will appear in the Journal of Marriage and Family in December.

Brush and birds

Perhaps no species is more dependent on sage brush than the greater sage grouse. Ninety-five percent of the bird’s diet consists of foliage from the gray-green shrub. The other five percent comes from alfalfa and an occasional grasshopper, said MSU graduate student Jenny Sika. Sage brush also provides shelter and nesting sites for the popular game bird. Because the species is so dependent on the plant, declines in sage brush habitat across the western U.S. have led to declines in greater sage grouse numbers. Sika is studying about 60 birds in central Montana to see if hunting harvests the same number of birds that would die naturally each year. Her study, funded by Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Bureau of Land Management, has another year to go.

Bull trout water

The most fundamental question for scientists who study fish is the water temperature that best suits the fish, said Tom McMahon, MSU fisheries expert. That information isn’t available about many species, however. To learn the optimum temperature for bull trout, McMahon, Alexander Zale and graduate student Beth Bear conducted an MSU research project at the Fish Technology Center near Bozeman. The project involved wild bull trout and 36 water tanks. The researchers varied the water temperature, but kept light and feeding conditions as close to the outdoors as possible. They discovered that the hottest water the bull trout can survive is about 69.8 degrees. They grow best when the water is about 55.8 degrees.

Evelyn Boswell, (406) 994-5135 or [email protected]

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